VOLUME 59 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 19, 2022 P57
said. "I was a little bit farther
back on the start but made
some good passes early on, and
I was doing everything I could to
push, but I couldn't quite get to
the podium spot. I made big im-
provements from the first round,
and I know we'll get there. It's
just a matter of fine-tuning at this
point."
After topping both qualifying
sessions and winning his heat
race by more than three sec-
onds over Roczen, Eli Tomac
looked to be the odds-on favorite
to win the main event, but a bad
start prevented that from hap-
pening.
"I was feeling really good go-
ing into the main event," Tomac
Round-one standouts and
Honda HRC teammates Ken
Roczen and Chase Sexton
had rather forgettable nights
compared to their memorable
ones at A1. Roczen started the
day with a scary crash in the
whoops in the morning qualify-
ing session and was nearly run
over by his teammate Sexton,
who clipped Roczen's helmet
visor and narrowly missed his
whole head as he rode past.
Roczen still managed to qualify
eighth and seemed unfazed at
the start of the main event. He
started inside the top 10, mak-
ing his way to the front when he
crashed again in the whoops.
He got up and continued but
never got back to full speed.
The number-94 logged a 13th
on the night and dropped to fifth
in the point standings.
Oakland Supercross 450SX Highlights
Ken Roczen (94) and
Chase Sexton (23)
didn't have the magic
speed that had the
previous week.
